Battle for Mirinoi
by chickenscrews
Summary: A rogue faction of Power Rangers led by Scorpina's daughter has conquered Terra Venture to establish their own tyrannical government, leaving Billy and the Space, Galaxy, and Aquitian teams dead or missing in the chaos. Earth's heroes try to respond to the crisis even with Warstar already at their doorstep, risking a perilous galactic war when old allies become the new Psychos…
1. Ashes of Terra Venture

This is a very loosely-handled request from Xoxogirly/AquitarStar. She wanted "a 60 chap. Tommy/Kim fic set in Megaforce" and was _very_ specific with details about the premise...I somehow came up with this instead xD But I am going to try to hit all the key points as closely as possible, even if that means making some radical changes/additions here and there. Sorry, Aquitar ^_^'

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe where the existence of the "New Ranger Powers" in _Super Megaforce_ actually makes sense…

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><p>Battle for Mirinoi<p>

Chapter One: Ashes of Terra Venture

A crimson boot's heel thrust open the doors to the grand hall, revealing the once-majestic chamber to be just as dark and corpse-ridden as the rest of the palace. AkaRed stood paralyzed in the opened doorway, austere and horrified at the treason his own students committed. The only light shone from the expansive windows lining the far wall, where the cloud-obscured sunlight splayed over slain politicians and their families, whose blood soaked the lavish walls, floor, and furniture that separated them from the rioting, murderous citizens three stories below.

All activity in the chamber halted. The offenders—four members of the Power Rangers Legendary Squadron clad in blue, green, yellow, and pink—turned their gazes and trained their weapons on him. The fifth, the one in red, only stayed in place, holding a blaster inside the kneeled, quivering emperor's mouth, but noted their mentor's presence all the same.

AkaRed fought to still his breath, to fathom that four of his best students all had their guns primed on him and his greatest protégé led the coup. The gold-crested helmets shrouded their expressions, yet their mentor doubted there was any humanity left in their eyes. But that they hadn't yet attacked him proved otherwise, that some parts of them could still be saved.

"What have you done…?" The man in the doorway breathlessly asked his students, only half-expecting an answer.

All were silent, the four aiming at him slightly trembling in their superior's presence. But Red Legend—the young woman holding a blaster in the emperor's mouth, calmly replied to her master, "Don't act surprised, Billy. You've known a long time your Rangers never supported this pig's rule, that our hearts bled for the thousands of innocents he let starve in the streets or sent to die as cannon fodder in meaningless wars."

Billy protested, "But what you're doing—"

"The people of Terra Venture shout for _true_ relief," his student continued, "an end to the oppression these incompetent fools have forced on them—to sleep with a roof over their heads, with real _food_ in their bellies, and to live without always fearing a government official will come to drag _another_ family member off to die in the Lost Galaxy. Heavens forbid the _Power Rangers_ don't act on what's best for the people."

"By committing high treason and murdering dozens of innocents?!" Billy Cranston shrieked, his fists trembling and the other four inferiors growing tense under his rising hostility. "There is _always_ a better way, Hydrina! We could've found a peaceful solution, kept using our influence in the courts to advocate relief for the people, and maybe even pushed for democracy when the time was right—"

"Democracy?" Hydrina scoffed. She chuckled, then Red Legend removed her blaster from the paled king's mouth and motioned all around the blood-streaked chamber with it in a half-frenzy. "You think _democracy_ could've kept all this blood from being spilled? Will a corrupt corporatocracy of squabbling fools give these starving people the aid and security they need?"

The emperor moaned, "Please don't let them hurt me, Sir Cranston! I'll—I'll give you any reward if you save me!"

"Quiet!" Hydrina struck the emperor across his temple with the barrel of her gun, drawing more blood from him. Billy winced at his former prodigy's animosity, but held firm in the doorway, understanding the delicate gravity of the room. The Legendary Squadron's Red Ranger spoke again to her ex-mentor, "Right now, those peasants with pitchforks you hear outside fight for themselves because nobody in this oaf's regime will. They've torn each other apart in the streets for scraps of the bread they'd have to sell their own kidneys to afford because of the insane taxes this man's government has forced on them. And you know what makes it worse? Ninety percent of all the crimes we respond to are nothing more than victims of the empire being forced to take extreme measures just to survive. Meanwhile, the true criminals—the ones who make these impossible laws and drive innocent people to the brink of savagery—go unpunished and it has been _nauseating_ watching the Power Rangers, who are supposed to fight for the common good, become pawns of the empire. All of this—this incompetence, this malice, this division of classes—has only led to chaos. And I will _not_ stand by and let my home and the people I love degenerate into anarchy!"

Red-suited Billy shook his head. "The way you're speaking…there were people on Earth a long time ago who said the same thing. They were right in believing things needed to change and I admire the aspiration they might've shared in wanting to do what's right for the people, but they were wrong in the application. Violence only breeds violence. This revolution you've ignited won't end with Emperor Caiden's death. The fires will rage on long after your new system's established, and one day, you'll find yourself exactly where he is: barrel-end of a gun in your mouth and millions chanting your death."

"It's a helluva lot more successful than any coward plan you came up with," Hydrina said as she retracted her helmet, allowing the tresses of her raven-black hair to fall over her shoulders and reach her mid-back, her blue-grey eyes almost glowing in the ambiance of the dark room and the fires that burned outside. Now, more than ever, her young visage—a genetic blend of western and oriental features devoid of any makeup—reminded Billy of…

_Scorpina… _He swallowed, suppressing the bile rising in his throat.

"Look at my face, Mentor," she demanded firmly. "I know you can still see it: the face of my mother, whom you battled twenty years ago when you still served Zordon. And though you never met his human side, I know you can also sense my father in me. So, tell me: did you not use violence when you faced my parents in battle? How did 'fighting peacefully' stop the United Alliance of Evil?"

"That was a different threat, Hydrina," Billy shot back from under his helmet. "They were a brand of evil that responded only to force. There _were_ no alternatives. But Emperor Caiden is _not_ Lord Zedd. He's only human, and that means there's something inside him that will listen to reason and give the common good a chance."

"There are a lot of humans in Earth's history who could give Zedd a run for his money," Red Legend replied, her face ever cold and stoic as a bang fell over one eye. "But that is irrelevant. I agree Caiden here's not on the same level as your villains of old, but be it through malice or stupidity, he let his people suffer and die. There is no redemption from the countless he's killed since he rose to power. His victims cry for guilty blood and I'm the one they chose as the empire's reckoning."

AkaRed released a heavy sigh, his heart aching every second he spent in this room confronting his former students. He declared with a steely resolve, "I'm not giving up on you."

A signal chimed from within Billy's helmet and he reached to answer it, drawing the hostility of the other four armed Rangers.

"Let him answer it," Hydrina said with a smile, "I'm expecting some calls." Legends Green, Yellow, Blue, and Pink lowered their weapons.

Once sure he was safe but still perplexed by Hydrina's words—that _she_ was expecting some calls—Billy answered the transmitter built in his helmet. "I'm here, Karone."

The Pink Galaxy Ranger's voice was frantic on the other end. "Billy, we need your help right away! This is a losing fight up here and I don't know how much longer we can last!"

"What?! Who are you fighting?—can a blockade of civilian fighters really do this much?!" Billy shouted back in fear and alarm.

"It's not civilians we're fighting! It's Sun Vul—!"

An explosion on Karone's end rocked the transmission with static, but Billy heard enough to grasp her meaning: _Sun Vulcan_.

_My God…Hydrina has more of Terra Venture's younger Rangers on her side too?_

He could hear Karone cry in a soul-splitting shriek through fluctuating static, "LEO!"

Horrified, Billy looked on through his visor and the expansive window at a burning wreck of flame careening from the grey sky: the Galaxy Megazord. It plummeted into the distant ground, far beyond the ravenous mobs at the palace doors. AkaRed's heart bled at wondering how many of the Galaxy Rangers survived, if any did at all.

Then, another call which he hesitantly answered. "Carlos to AkaRed: the Space Rangers are under heavy fire! I repeat: we are under _heavy fire!_ It's the Prism Corps—they ambushed us—" Static and shrieks of pain soon replaced the Green Space Ranger's voice.

A call from the Aquitian Rangers and his heart already sank. "Billy, it's Delphine! We are under attack from Dragon Brigade! They've betrayed—"

More calls came in, this time from various leaders of the colonial marines, all asking for backup and all giving the same story: Terra Venture's Power Rangers—the Galaxy Rangers aside—had betrayed them and were the ones behind the coup. As the panicked calls rushed ever onward and more charred remains of Zords plunged from the sky like falling stars, the mantle of AkaRed grew too heavy for Billy Cranston to handle and he lost his balance, falling to his hands and knees in a disoriented despair. His ears fell numb to his allies' torment and all became a vague blur to the aging veteran, making him almost forget how to breathe.

Hydrina looked down on her old mentor in shame, scarcely believing this was the hero of legends she looked up to when she first joined the Rangers. With her gun back in the emperor's mouth, she forced him to his feet and repositioned the trembling man back-first against the wide glass window that reached from floor to ceiling. "Your hero's failed you, Emperor," she taunted. Then she lowered the gun and stepped aside so that none stood between her royal captive and the broken Cranston. The other four of the Legendary Squadron stood confused, yet never protested their leader's ambiguous actions. "So, let's see if you can save your hero," she said with an unreadable tone.

Emperor Caiden scarcely believed his ears. He looked back at her in wide-eyed confusion, unsure of what to do.

Hydrina spoke again, "It's painful seeing him broken like this. I looked up to him once and I'd rather not have _this_ be the last I ever see of him. So, go. Give him something to fight for."

Caiden gulped, drenched profusely in sweat and asked nervously, "H—how?"

Billy looked wearily up and saw the emperor unguarded, praying he could somehow resolve this without further bloodshed. Yet as his war-weary soul hoped for the best, he saw Hydrina suddenly roundhouse kick the emperor in his ribs, the extreme force of her power launching him through the glass of the window to flail helplessly over the crowds chanting his death until the ground would rise to meet him. In that instant, AkaRed came back to life and sped after the screaming man, darting past the corpses on the grand hall's floor, bolting through the broken window, and reaching his arm out to catch the emperor in mid-air. Yet a moment before he could grasp him, a blaster bolt fired by Hydrina struck Billy in the small of his back, throwing him off so that he and the politician landed separately and helplessly in the bloodthirsty crowd, smoke and embers trailing in Billy's pained descent.

Wounded AkaRed beheld in glimpses through shuffling bodies the emperor being beaten and hacked apart to death, but his terror intensified when he heard a member of the mob cry, "Hey, he tried to save Caiden! He's with the empire too!"

And with those fatal words, Billy became another target of the mob and they descended on him with every shred of violence they inflicted on the now-dead emperor and he could only defend himself against so many.

From the shattered palace window, helmetless Hydrina gazed down on the violence in stoic austerity, her true feelings for her mentor's fall unreadable, but even her four subordinates seemed worried to certain degrees as they gathered around her.

"Aren't we going to save him?" asked Erethus, the Blue Ranger of Legendary Squadron. He stood incredulous at his leader's side, but also daren't move without an order. Black feathered wings protruded from his back and he said with repressed urgency, "Give me the order and I'll extract him immediately. Only _say it_."

But Hydrina was motionless, grim as a statue and watching the carnage with stone-cold eyes. Whether she was conflicted between sparing and condemning the man they all knew as their mentor from childhood or was only enjoying the show was impossible to discern.

"Hydrina…?" Erethus almost pleaded, but no reply came.

The mob roared. A strike on the back dropped AkaRed to his knees and a swing of a bat shattered his visor, dozens of dark scarlet fractals and drops of Billy's blood splaying through the air as time slowed to a mystifying crawl.


	2. Luna's Last Stand

Remember, kids: Earth's moon in the _Power Rangers_ universe has its own breathable atmosphere and a predominantly arid/desert-like topography.

Remember, bronies: "Luna" is the Latin name for Earth's moon, and as such, our beloved Princess of the Night will _not_ be appearing here. Sorry about that :(

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><p>Battle for Mirinoi<p>

Chapter Two: Luna's Last Stand

A white-gloved fist crushed the underside of Creepox's mandible with what seemed all the power of an exploding dam, the uppercut's force jolting the Insectoid general several feet back in the air to the battle-ravaged Carter Grayson's bellowing roar.

His Red Lightspeed Rescue suit was heavily charred from blasterfire with his helmet demolished to nonexistence, yet the middle-aged, short-haired veteran held his own against Warstar's elite, following through on the uppercut by rushing Creepox before the Bug could recover and pummeling him further with his fists and feet. But then the vermillion-skinned Insectoid parried and held one punch with his arm-attached sickles and then another, leaving he and the veteran Ranger at a brief impasse before Carter bolted forward and head-butted the Insectoid to break the deadlock, unyielding and merciless in their skirmish. Despite Creepox's shelled skin and the blood that broke through Carter's own fleshy forehead on impact, the human succeeded in driving the Warstar general back, uncaring for his own injuries, and continued his bare-fisted assault. Mortar-fire exploded all around them, kicking up the moon's grey-white sand high into the air.

In a fiery battlefield on Earth's atmospheric moon, the soldiers of the Galactic Space Alliance—a joint military organization created by Earth, KO-35, Aquitar, and Triforia in 1999—clashed with the endless hordes of Warstar's infantrymen—the Loogies and their superiors—in the second week of combat since the alien conquerors' arrival to Earth. It was the GSA's intense valor and determination that held off the brunt of Warstar's invasion, and whatever forces of the invaders actually reached the Earth were sooner or later dispatched by any of the various Power Ranger teams on the world below. But Warstar's efforts intensified in recent days and Lightspeed Rescue and the Silver Guardians were called as backup for the GSA at Earth's dwindling first line of defense.

A Squad of Loogies rushed Carter Grayson mid-brawl, sparing Creepox a moment of reprieve as he watched the damaged Ranger flail under their charge. Yet through a mix of savagery and skill, the empty-handed Red Ranger turned the tides and exhausted Creepox could only marvel as Carter wrestled a short sword away from his aggressors and wildly yet precisely cut them apart with it or used the blaster attachment to vaporize many of them pointblank.

_He's…he's something else_—the alien general pondered._ This Ranger is far deadlier than any other we faced on this planet's moon. I'll take no chances with him._

The scarlet-shelled Insectoid yelled into his communicator, "Air squadron, I need an aerial strike at these coordinates _now!_"

"Sir," a Loogie in a one-man starship replied, "there are still many of our own near the target. They'll be hit—!"

"_Now_, Sargent!" demanded Creepox as he retreated.

The order was reluctantly carried out and what few Loogies survived this long against Carter's onslaught attempted to flee as they saw a squadron of Warstar starships flying toward them and priming their laser-cannons. Grayson caught his ground-borne enemies' caution and turned to find death from above rushing to end him. Immediately, the helmetless Ranger dove for the nearest fleeing Loogie and shoved him between himself and the laser-cannons, disintegrating the Warstar infantryman in the blast and others nearby suffered the same as the discharges continued. And when the first of the starships in v-formation drew near enough to the Red Ranger, Carter vaulted upward from a doomed Loogie's shoulders and skidded to a rough landing on the lead dogfighter's surface with his stolen short sword impaled through the hull, the high-speed winds blowing against his face and hair.

Alarmed cries sounded from the lead pilot, who was separated from Carter's wrath only by a thin shield of glass, and seconds later, those behind him opened fire and the ship exploded into a ball of flame. Carter released his hold in the nick of time and careened for another, his own blaster now drawn and firing repeatedly for the next ship's cockpit, killing the Loogie inside and then jumping from that falling dogfighter to the next.

Fleeing Creepox watched on from far away, scarcely believing just how much he underestimated this one. He prayed to his dark gods that the Power Rangers on Earth wouldn't be a tenth as strong as the one above him.

Hopping from another ship he destroyed to the next in that high-velocity deathtrap, Carter finally leapt too late and his near proximity to the exploding starship behind him threw off his flight. A Warstar dogfighter whose wing he heavily damaged with a shot from his blaster crashed into him, breaking several of his ribs and severing the burning wing that collided with him on impact. They scattered separately but brutally in their descent, the starship crashing in a fiery mess on the sandy ground and Carter landing dozens of yards away amid demolished tanks and fallen soldiers of the GSA and Silver Guardians, the Ranger's breath almost gone and his body scarcely able to move. Amazingly, he never dropped his blaster.

He didn't know how much time passed before he attempted to crawl away to hopefully find reinforcements this far out in the battlefield, but aside from two alert Loogies separated from their unit whose brains he quickly blew out, Carter somehow avoided conflict and mortar-fire in his desperate retreat. He landed far away from Creepox, who no doubt already fled the fight, so there was little chance of confronting him again. Carter took a moment to rest behind a small dune and turned his focus to the morpher on his wrist to call for backup.

He found there was one missed call: a top-priority distress signal from Aquitar addressed to every Ranger on Earth. He must've missed it while surviving all the carnage on the lunar outpost, yet he afforded no time to ponder what sort of menace threatened Aquitar, his greater focus on protecting his own planet, and so he sent his own distress call to his allies on the battlefield.

His breathing was labored and his wounds were critical. "Carter to…anyone out there…I need immediate extraction. …Warstar's too powerful out here…we'll have to retreat."

He waited for a response, but there was only static.

He called again, his voice weak and raspy. "Please…is…is anyone out there?"

A heavy crunching of sand resounded nearby, and Carter's caution turned to dread when he saw one of Warstar's elite emerge from the other side of the dune: a six-winged Insectoid named Dragonflay. Carter quickly raised his blaster to fell the enemy, but the Insectoid moved with a speed beyond any the wounded Ranger had ever seen and evaded the shot. Before he could fire again, Dragonflay almost instantaneously appeared inches away from him, swatting the gun away and seizing Carter by his throat. He raised the wounded Ranger overhead and a wicked laugh emanated from his steely maw.

"You're a slow one," the Insectoid leered, his eyes charging with optic energy and ready to fire. "But I'll make this quick."

Carter anticipated the end, fearless but spiteful that he couldn't do more.

Lightspeed Yellow and the Quantum Ranger leapt over the dune in unison and fired on Dragonflay, their blasts grazing the Insectoid as he barely used his speed to evade their attacks on time. He dropped Carter in his retreat, but the Red Lightspeed Ranger clung to his enemy around his neck, refusing to let go.

"Carter, get away from him!" Kelsey called after her comrade with heavy concern in her voice.

Carter Grayson was too weak to reply and only justified his actions in his mind. _I can't let go of him. With speed like this, he'll be impossible to catch again. They need me to slow him down._

With what strength he had left, Carter used his weight to drop Dragonflay to the ground and held him in a headlock, attempting to break his neck.

"You slow-minded human! Release me!" the Insectoid screeched, but to no avail.

In the time Dragonflay wrestled with his prisoner-turned-captor on the moon's soil, Kelsey and Eric almost covered enough ground to finish him, Kelsey with her V-Lancer and Eric with his bladed Quantum Defender. But Dragonflay elbowed Carter in his broken ribs and returned to his feet, only to be slashed repeatedly by the other two Rangers.

"Good work, Grayson," Eric complimented his fallen predecessor as he struck Dragonflay across his chest.

Kelsey used her lance to sweep away the Insectoid's footing and sent him falling flat on his winged back only a few feet away from Carter, then just as quickly plunged her high-tech halberd into the alien's abdomen, prompting a pained screech as sparks exploded from the alien's armor. But as she drove the lance deeper and deeper into her enemy, Dragonflay's eyes glowed, charged again with power, and he shot a strong, concentrated beam of optic energy directly into her visor, violently bucking Kelsey's head back and jolting her off her feet several yards away. In that brief window of recovery before Eric could impale him with the Quantum Defender, the alien scurried a meter away at hyper-speed as the blade struck the sand where he once lay, and as Eric turned to lunge for the Insectoid again, Dragonflay—now back on his feet—used his unrivaled speed to clutch Carter by his collar and hoist the wounded Ranger between himself and Eric's sword. The blade of the Quantum Defender plunged through Carter Grayson's torso, to the horror of the Red Ranger and the Silver Guardian behind him who unintentionally did the deed.

With Carter paralyzed of shock and Eric of disbelief, Dragonflay dropped the dying Ranger, his skewered weight lowering the Quantum Defender as well, and the Insectoid rushed the Silver Guardian with a barrage of melee attacks, carrying him far out of Grayson's failing vision.

Carter landed on his side with the Time Ranger's blade protruding from his torso, his eyes peeled, jaw agape, and bare face resting atop the grey sands of Luna. When his wrist hit the ground, the jolted morpher played the SOS he neglected earlier. With his consciousness fading, he accepted that the message from Aquitar before him and his friends' pained cries behind him would be the last thing he ever heard.

The visage of an Aquitian woman spoke in a recording on his morpher's view-screen. "My name is Cestria Cranston and I send this message to all Power Rangers beyond our borders who may be listening. Aquitar is under heavy siege by an army from Mirinoi's new dictator: a former Power Ranger from Terra Venture named Hydrina…"

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><p>Cestria's message was later viewed all the way to its conclusion in the throne room of the Warstar Spaceship, her visage now a hologram displayed atop an advanced projector of Warstar engineering.<p>

"…I don't expect we'll survive Hydrina's onslaught much longer or even that my husband and his friends are still alive, but if there is anyone out there listening, please, _please_ stop this madwoman. Don't let her unleash on the galaxy what Dark Specter did sixteen years ago." A heavy explosion rocked behind her, demolishing the blast-doors that protected her and her family.

"Mother, get down!" an Aquitian soldier called to Cestria, and the female soldier and her brother raised their guns and opened fire into the smoke that flooded from the doorway. Blasterfire returned on them and the last image was of Cestria hastily pressing buttons off-screen to end the recording and send her message.

Then the projection dissipated.

Admiral Malkor sat upon his cathedra, stroking his curled, golden goatee in contemplation. "It seems we're not the only ones who've declared war on these Power Rangers. This Hydrina could make a formidable ally."

"Provided she is loyal to our cause, your Eminence," Vrak interjected. "I agree we seem to share a common enemy, but a common goal?"

"Your caution is noted, Vrak," Malkor conceded. "Yet it is also moot. Today, we learned these Power Rangers can be destroyed, and though one nearly defeated Creepox singlehandedly, our battlefield reports suggest he was only a rare anomaly among his kind. By these estimates, the rest of Earth's warriors _will_ perish under our might."

Creepox asserted himself, rage seething in his voice, "The human who faced me was merely lucky, your highness. But as we know—" the red-shelled Insectoid reached into the projector and then held up Carter Grayson's damaged, bloodied morpher, "—even his luck ran out. Only permit me to travel the planet's surface, and I will prove the rest of these Power Rangers can be squashed with relative ease."

Admiral Malkor replied, "You've failed me once today, Creepox. But I will grant you this opportunity for redemption. Scour the area where Scaraba met his end at the hands of Megaforce one week ago and prove to me these humans are as weak as you claim."

Creepox bowed. "It will be done, my lord," and he departed from the throne room, leaving the admiral and the prince alone to their own devices.

"And Vrak," Malkor called, "you're certain this Aquitian woman's message never reached the Earth?"

"I'm positive, Admiral. Our jamming technology has cut off all interstellar communication to and from the planet below. These poor fools are completely unaware that another superpower is conquering their allies as we speak. The only ones who received the message were those on the moon, but they have been taken care of. None but Warstar know of this Hydrina's plans. How do you wish to proceed, sir?"

Malkor thought for a moment, then declared, "For now, we will focus our efforts on conquering Earth. Yet relay our information to your father, the emperor, that he may deal with Hydrina as he deems fit. Emperor Mavro can decide for himself if she is worthy as a temporary ally or just another whelp to be crushed underfoot."


	3. Drifters and Outlaws

This chapter's opening scene borrows some imagery from...somewhere. I'd tell you what it is like a proper disclaimer, but that could also implicate spoilers for this story if you know where it's from, so you'll just have to wait awhile.

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><p>Battle for Mirinoi<p>

Chapter Three: Drifters and Outlaws

A tall chain-link gate separated Megaforce Yellow from the scantly-roofed homeless community betwixt wide alleys of buildings in the inner city, where fires in trash cans offset the night's heavy rain.

Gia Moran called to the homeless—some of them children—from the other side of the gate, the downpour drizzling her suit, "Everyone, you need to get out of here immediately! The aliens are invading this city right now and they're destroying everything they see!" She had their attention, but many seemed only frightened or confused with no direction of where to go. She continued in simple terms so all could understand, "We've held off as many as we can, but more are coming. I know this is a lot to take in, but I need you to _run away at once_. There's a Lightspeed Rescue outpost seven blocks in that direction and they're evacuating all the civilians they can, so if you want to survive this, you better get moving."

From among the concerned faces came murmurs of worry and shuffling of bodies, families and acquaintances tugging on each other's sleeves to hurry up and some of the stronger-bodied carrying those who couldn't walk. A little girl called as she left, "Thank you, Power Ranger!" and Gia smiled under her helmet, calmly replying, "You're welcome." Fighting monsters was one part of the job, but saving lives and seeing the gratitude on innocent faces was another sensation entirely.

Only two of the slum-dwellers remained, one hooded and reposed on an old chair with armrests as if it were a throne near the fire-lit garbage can and holding a wooden staff in his loose grip, and the other man in a tan, open trench-coat leaning against the brick side of a building near his associate, a bandana tied over his hair and dark sunglasses obscuring his eyes. The flames' dancing light revealed a short brown beard on the second man's round face.

Surprised but undeterred by their refusal to leave, Gia called them again, "Hey—that means you too. You both need to get before the monsters come back." She looked closer at the seated one and found from the flickering orange light that his face was reddened and deformed from severe burn injuries. If there was any hair on his supposedly scorched scalp, the hood from the black overcoat hid it well. She noted his slouched posture and filmy, wild grey-blue eyes and wondered if there was anybody home. Or worse: _everybody _was home.

The second cloaked man, the bearded one in the sunglasses and bandana, strode over to the Yellow Ranger until they were only a foot away with nothing but the tall chain-linked gate between them. Gia grew apprehensive, but refused to let worry show.

"You don't need to worry about us, Power Ranger," said the man on the other side of the fence, his voice authoritative and calm. "This isn't our first monster fight."

Gia was surprised at the man's tenacity, yet something in the way this drifter held himself made her believe him.

He spoke again. "You're with Megaforce, right?"

"Yeah," she answered, unsure where he was going.

"How well connected are you with the other teams?"

The young woman was speechless for a moment, only then realizing in the short time she'd been a Ranger that their team was so far isolated, told of the others and their legacies yet never actually meeting them. She stuttered a response. "We—we're actually not in contact with any other Ranger teams right now. Why? What do you need?"

The man sighed. "I need you to pass on a message for me. It's for Doctor Thomas Oliver. Tell him Jason says to rendezvous at the old Command Center on—what day is it today?"

Gia thought a moment, then answered, "Uh, the ninth."

The man had an idea. "Hey, you got your communicator with you?"

With every new piece of Ranger knowledge the stranger casually exhibited, Gia faced further astonishment and wondered whose presence she was standing in.

She briefly fumbled for her communicator, but then steadied herself and acted more professional as she gripped the transceiver in the visage of her team's mentor. "Yeah," she answered, holding it up. "Got it right here."

The stranger in the sunglasses almost spoke, but paused a moment to wonder at the morpher's impractical size and design. **_That's_**_ a morpher nowadays? I thought technology was supposed to get __**smaller.**_ _Whatever._

He pointed toward it. "That thing got a recording feature?"

"Yeah," helmeted Gia said as she prepared the function for her messenger.

"Good," he said. When Gia held the image of Gosei inches away from him, the man spoke his message into the recorder. "Tommy? It's Jason. I need to speak with you ASAP. Meet me at the old Command Center on February the thirteenth. It's urgent." He nodded and Gia cut the recording.

"That's only four days from now," Gia said. "How am I supposed to find your friend by then?"

"You're a Power Ranger," Jason said simply. "You'll find a way." He looked past the Yellow-suited woman and into Harwood's expansive bay, where he saw the Warstar commander Yuffo transcend his initial form and became a colossus, dwarfing the city's highest of skyscrapers.

"You better get in your Zords now," Jason told the Ranger.

Though her eyes were hidden by the black visor, it was clear by her body language that she was confused. "Our what?" she asked. Then she turned around and silently gasped and staggered back against the fence at seeing Yuffo's new form.

Jason looked at her incredulously and then remembered this team had only been active for two weeks. They probably didn't have any Zords yet. _Well, crap._

He tapped her shoulder through the chain-links. "Hey," he said. She turned to face him, softly trembling from the titanic alien standing in the water far beyond them.

_These kids really are new at this. _"I know this looks impossible," he coached her, "but others have gone before you and turned out alright. And if you don't have your robots yet, well, this isn't the first time a Ranger's gone in under-equipped to fight evil. You can do this. But you and your team have to give it your all. Let the Power protect you."

_Who are you?_ Gia wanted to ask him, but knew there was no time. She nodded in solemn acceptance of her duty and said back, "Take care of yourselves."

Her communicator rang and she answered it. It was Noah on the other line. "Gia! We need to regroup right away! Have you seen the—?"

"Yes, I see the giant alien in our bay. I'm lookin' right at it," she calmly said back. "I'll be there soon."

The burnt, hazy-eyed man on the false throne with the wooden staff in his hand observed the young woman with an intense yet unreadable gaze beneath his black hood. Jason entered his line of sight and subtly motioned it was time for them to leave.

When Gia finished her call, she turned back to face the enigmatic vagrants on the other side of the fence, but the alley was deserted. Thoughts and questions raced in her mind, but she put them aside and teleported to regroup with her team.

* * *

><p>Green bodies of the Warstar infantrymen slammed against the speeding car tearing through their ranks, leaving dozens of alien corpses in the abandoned, rain-soaked streets of downtown Harwood. Jason showed no mercy to the invaders from behind the driver's wheel, his sunglasses since removed for easier vision.<p>

The burned man sat in the navigator's seat, the hood of his black, ragged cloak still drawn as he stared languidly out the window at the lime-skinned invaders being mowed over in piles, their alien blood coating the abandoned vehicle the homeless pair commandeered. The burned man's exhausted gaze shifted to the side mirror and he saw the Gosei Great Megazord battling enlarged Yuffo in the distance.

Jason mused:_ So, they got a Megazord in the nick of time. Nice._

"Seeing those rookies," the burned man said in a raspy voice, "bet it makes you wish you could've helped more."

The car rumbled over the last of the Loogies and they seemed to have reached a respite from the zealous army. Now only rain beat against the vehicle. Jason replied, "They're young. They have to earn their stripes same as I did. Same as every Ranger before them did."

"And if they fall?"

"They won't. The Power doesn't choose just anyone."

"You sound so sure of them."

"My team was a handful of high school students kidnapped by a floating head in a jar. You don't get much less prepared than that. So, unless these newbies are somehow in a worse boat than we were, I won't doubt them."

"Then why not tell them who you were? We could've stayed at their command center and tried to contact Tommy directly from there."

"I don't doubt their fighting spirit, Ed. But that's different from knowing if they're responsible or mature enough to be in on_ all _our secrets just yet."

The burned man—"Ed," as Jason called him—chuckled. "The world is ending, Jason. _Again_. War-hungry aliens from outer space broke through your moon's defenses, possibly killing eight Rangers and a whole lot of good soldiers in the process. Now, your morpher's gone, a lot of old teams are powerless, we can't reach our allies in space, and if my premonitions are true… Well, if you can't trust your own kind, who can you trust?"

"Only a select few, Ed. Just a few."

* * *

><p>[One night later, on the other side of the world…]<p>

The moonlit Port of Tokyo crawled with corruption. Most of the artificial lights were left off to avoid suspicion. Large multicolored crates were stacked high atop one another, towering over the forms of armed criminals staring in awe at the newly-arrived spaceship descending before them in the harbor.

Lothor in particular had an excited grin on his masked face. "Oh man, I _gotta_ get me one a' these again," he said with his usual boisterous, gravelly voice, his exuberance once again betraying all pretenses of an evil ninja warlord. But Lothor had no need for pretenses when he had power.

The sizeable ship landed atop the water, the ramp extended to the dockside, and the doors to the cargo bay slid open. There stood a tall, three-eyed vampire bat-like alien made taller by a clear, cylindrical helmet encasing his head in an artificial environment. A slimming black cape hung over his broad shoulders and enveloped his form from there to his ankles. Everything about his appearance and demeanor suggested he could've been a cold and calculating crime-lord who understood power intimately. But he had no need for power when he had profit.

Lothor outspread his arms in greeting the alien descending the ramp. "Broodwing, old buddy! How ya been, you old dirt-bag, you?"

Broodwing only slightly bowed in greeting his opposite. He replied in his calm, crisp voice, "Thriving and surviving, Lothor. I've brought the shipment you requested."

"Straight to business, eh?" Lothor was undeterred in his manner. "Just as I'd expect from my favorite intergalactic bat-themed weapons dealer. Lemme see it!"

Broodwing motioned with his cape back to the henchmen in his ship and they carried a large metallic crate with them to the base of the ramp, where Broodwing punched in the passcode to open the lid. Lothor giddied beside his associate with childish excitement.

"It was fortunate we made this arrangement before Warstar cut off interplanetary communications," Broodwing said. "Had it been later, business would've been impossible."

The crate unlocked and Broodwing opened the lid. Lothor gleamed at the prize inside, breathless.

"By Dark Specter's cataracts," Lothor swore, "…I still can't believe you found them! Are they ready?"

"They are recharging as we speak," Broodwing said. "They were heavily damaged when I acquired them and have taken considerable time to repair. Still, only give them a week and they will be good as new."

"A week, eh? I expected the full product on delivery."

"This _is_ the full product, Lothor. Understand they've been destroyed beyond conventional repair for fourteen years and required drastic retrofitting to be operable again. They've been recharging since my contact mended them in the Lost Galaxy. If you activate them now, they'll function, but only at a fraction of their strength."

Lothor eyed his purchase, appearing less keen than during the unboxing, but satisfied nonetheless. But it was only a matter of time before his big, bright smile returned. "Well, if you say it'll work, it'll work. That's what I like about you Broodwing; throw enough money your way, and you're the most honest guy in the universe."

The arms dealer nodded in agreement. "Betraying the trust of one of my best clients would be bad for business."

Lothor smiled. "Indeed it would." He reached into the crate and picked up what appeared to be a golden bugle, its trimmings of silver with five slots facing upward above the grip. He weighed the product carefully. "So, I stick the keys in these little slot things here?" he said, pointing to the openings.

"Correct. Then, only play your tune and…"

"I'll have the evil rainbow to end all other rainbows."

Broodwing was silent a short while, then Lothor clarified: "Power Rangers, man. I'm talking about the Power Rangers."

"I know what you meant," Broodwing groaned. "But two of those colors aren't in the rainbow."

"Pink's kind've a rainbow color, y'know, if you squint a little," Lothor defended.

"Explain black."

"Maybe yellow's batteries ran out—I can't explain all of nature's phenomenons."

Prying eyes watched the shady transaction from behind high piles of multicolored crates: the mystical eyes of Saba, the enchanted short sword wielded by the Mighty Morphin' White Ranger, and through holding the bladed tiger spirit in reconnaissance, Tommy Oliver allowed his weapon-and-partner's enhanced vision and hearing to overtake his own.

A subdued beeping sounded from the Ranger's communicator-watch. Saba's eyes still on the targets, Tommy raised the morpher to answer.

"I hope it's important, Hayley," Tommy said in a hushed voice. "I got Lothor and his cronies doing business with some alien black market dealer in my sight."

"I figured as much," Hayley replied, "but I thought you'd want to hear this. It's from Jason. He says it's urgent."

Tommy was silent for a short while, weighing his options, then said, "Alright. Lemme hear it."

Hayley played the recording. The sound of heavy rain could be heard as Tommy's old friend spoke: "Tommy? It's Jason. I need to speak with you ASAP. Meet me at the old Command Center on February the thirteenth. It's urgent."

"That was it," Hayley said.

"That's all?" Tommy hardly believed it.

"That's all."

Tommy shook his head. "Alright, I'll call him back as soon as I'm free."

"He didn't use his own morpher to send the message, so that might be difficult. He had Megaforce stop by a little bit ago to pass it on. You don't think it's because his communicator's not working, do you?"

Tommy sighed. "Or maybe he doesn't have it anymore. We haven't seen each other in years, so anything's possible. But why the old Command Center? Divatox destroyed it sixteen years ago."

"And why say he wants to meet ASAP if he doesn't wanna see you until the thirteenth? That's three days away stateside."

"Right. There's too many things here that don't add up."

"You think it's a trap?"

Tommy sighed again. "I don't know. I'll worry about it when I'm done here."

"Right. I'll let you get to it, then. Hayley out."

She hung up and Tommy tried to return his focus to the illicit deal before him, but thoughts of his friend's uncanny message pervaded his mind.

_Jason, what's going on?_

* * *

><p>[Author's notes]<p>

Regarding Lothor: he _technically_ never died in the series 0_o By the end of _Ninja Storm_, he was locked away in the Abyss of Evil, but escaped a year later in _Dino Thunder_, where Mesogog used his psionic brain-blast to turn him into an action figure (_what?_) and put him away in a jar for safekeeping (no seriously, _what?_). Sure, the lab in which Lothor's jar was stored was destroyed, but we never got any hint or official confirmation that Lothor himself died when that happened, so for all we know, he might've escaped and could still be operating from behind the scenes after all these years.

Regarding Broodwing: yes, he's a character from _SPD_, a season set in 2025 (a full twelve years after this story takes place), so some of you are probably wondering what he's even doing here. My defense: hey, he had to start business at _some_ point, so who's to say he wasn't around making shady deals back in 2013?

There, we've now got two major Post-Zordon Era villains still officially unaccounted for as of 2014. Do with this knowledge as you please 8)


End file.
